We describe laboratory experiments to study the harmonic content of standing waves in guitar strings. The experimental data were taken by using the magnetic pickup from a guitar and a digital oscilloscope with a Fast Fourier transform capability. The amplitudes of the harmonics in the measured signal depend on the location where the string is plucked, resulting in a different timbre of the sound. The relative amplitudes of transverse standing waves in a string were determined from the experimental data and also predicted from the wave equation with the boundary and initial conditions corresponding to the initial shape of the string.
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2016
American Association of Physics Teachers
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